In a major coup for Xbox game publishing, Microsoft has landed the contract to publish Physint, Hideo Kojima's long-awaited follow up to Death Stranding.
Despite being announced by PlayStation, somehow, Xbox has managed to acquire the rights to publish Hideo Kojima's return to the "action-espionage" genre. It was all announced just now via Xbox Wire.
Physint in essence sounds like a spiritual successor to Kojima's classic Metal Gear Solid franchise. Metal Gear owner Konami and Hideo Kojima had a high-profile bust-up a few years ago, following the launch of MGSV: The Phantom Pain — which arguably remains unfinished to this day.
Since then, Kojima went independent, developed the award-winning Death Stranding franchise, and later landed a publishing deal with Xbox for horror title OD. Death Stranding 2 is presently a PlayStation exclusive, but the first Death Stranding since launched on Xbox with Xbox Play Anywhere. Later, Kojima re-acquired the rights to Death Stranding from PlayStation itself. It stands to reason Death Stranding 2 will eventually hit Xbox in the future as well.
During the previous announcement two years ago, PlayStation Studios' lead Herman Hulst said that Physint was "part of the PlayStation and Kojima Productions partnership," although that no longer seems to be the path Kojima chose.
“Creators have choices about where and how they bring their ideas to life," Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said in today's blog post. "We’re honored that Kojima-san has chosen XBOX to work with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS on PHYSINT. His ambition to challenge conventions reflects the kind of creativity we want to support at XBOX."
"This expands our relationship with XBOX beyond OD," said Hideo Kojima. "As we move forward with the development of PHYSINT, we remain committed to redefining the action-espionage genre for players around the world."
Microsoft and Hideo Kojima also said that the two are collaborating across film and television as well, beyond horror title OD. It sounds as though Microsoft is investing a ton into Kojima Productions to bring this partnership to life, although it sounds as though there's some drama that has taken place behind the scenes between Kojima Productions and PlayStation. Physint was announced on the PlayStation stage, so for it to swap hands in such a stark way suggests there's a bigger story at play here.
UPDATE 11:15 PM ET: Hideo Kojima has released a statement on the news, which clarifies how PlayStation (Sony) was poised to cancel the PHYSINT project, which as a result led Kojima to XBOX as a partner:
As confirmed earlier through our official channels, in mid-June of this year, we unexpectedly received notice from PlayStation Studios that they would cancel the PHYSINT project. PHYSINT is an important project both to me personally and to KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS. Determined to keep… pic.twitter.com/rQqhxAnb7NSeptember 10, 2026
In response, Sony has released a statement confirming that it has "made the difficult decision to step away from collaborating with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS on its project PHYSINT."
An update from PlayStation Studios: After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to step away from collaborating with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS on its project PHYSINT. We continue to have great admiration for Hideo Kojima's vision for the game.Our relationship…September 10, 2026
Either way, it's a fantastic win for Xbox, potentially. Working with such high-profile developers like Hideo Kojima boosts Xbox's visibility with audiences that Microsoft has typically struggled to access. It also feeds into Asha Sharma's strategy of targeting more ambitious AAA projects with trans-media opportunities for TV and movie treatments.
Whether it all lands remains to be seen, but man oh man, this is NOT one I saw coming.
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